Returning to a Magical Place

A couple of weeks ago I took a whirlwind tour of the southeastern U.S. After finishing my work on Friday afternoon, I turned my rental car south and headed to serve as a volunteer at Give Kids the World (GKTW) Village just outside of Orlando, FL. In case you missed this update in our life back in 2011, this is the place our family stayed when we went on Elise's "Wish Trip" with the Make a Wish Foundation.

Give Kids the World Village is a 70-acre, nonprofit "storybook" resort, located near Central Florida's most beloved attractions, where children with life-threatening illnesses and their families are treated to week long, cost free fantasy vacations. Next to Disney World, this is one of the most magical places that a child could ever experience. The village is laid out to be like a life size version of the popular board game "Candyland". There are many unique aspects of life that you get to experience when you have a child that has experienced a life threatening illness. Most of those aspects are not near as amazing and enjoyable as Give Kids the World Village.

I was not prepared for the flood of emotions that I felt when arriving at the village. I was excited to return and "pay it forward" to an organization that had provided some great joy to our family. My first stop once arriving was to stop outside the chapel and get a quick picture of "Tyler's Mailbox". You will see it pictured to the right. I don't remember the exact story behind the naming of the mailbox, but I'm sure you can imagine the impact it has on the families that experience GKTW. Many families that get to experience this magical place, are on their last getaway with their sick child. For many there is no cure, no time, and no hope. The mailbox serves as a reminder that there is always hope. For all the things you cannot say to other people, you simply put it in a letter to God and drop it in the mailbox. Nobody ever reads it, but the power of turning over all of your fears, worries, and cares is an empowering thing. I wish I had thought of something like this a lot earlier in our journey with Elise.

Abby riding the carousel at GKTW in 2011

My time as a volunteer was spent running the carousel. I have some kind of strange love for the magic of the carousel, so this was as close to my dream job as I am ever going to get. While I can be a fairly outgoing guy, that doesn't come real easy to me when dealing with little kids. I was fortunate to be paired with a lady that worked as an entertainment director for Disney World. She was in her element to be out drumming up kids to ride the carousel and really got them excited. It wasn't hard to find riders as the carousel is located right across from the dining hall.

As I sat outside the carousel waiting for my trainer to come and teach me how to run it I got to observe many families that were walking around the village. As I watched them I imagined that we must have looked much the same way 18 months ago. All of them looked tired. After months or years of struggle, life had caught up to them all. The hectic schedule of an amazing free vacation added to their weariness, but this is a whole different kind of tired. Life had dealt them a pretty difficult hand and the opportunity to escape the struggles, even for a few days, brings a kind of relief that I cannot even begin to explain. While there were some kids full of energy and running all over, there were others that were thoroughly exhausted from their busy vacation schedule and others that were simply too sick to have much energy. But, they were all there enjoying their vacation for all it was worth. All families are in a very similar boat. It is one of the few places I can recall being totally comfortable that everyone you encountered had a deep understanding of the struggles you face.

I served my four hour shift as a volunteer. I helped dozens of kids get buckled in and waved and smiled with them as they went round and round. There was no limit to the number of times that a child could ride the carousel and some could have ridden for hours if there wasn't so much other fun stuff to do. When my shift was over, I went to the building next door known as "The Castle of Miracles". Inside that castle is a star placed by every wish kid that has ever come to the village. I wanted a picture of Elise's star from our trip in 2011. They had given us a picture of it before we left the village at the end of our trip and had shown us where it was placed. But, it was important for me to see it again and get that picture. You can see her name on the star in the middle of the picture.


 I left the village that night at 10:30 for a three hour drive back to my hotel. It gave me a lot of time to think about what I had experienced and how much my own life has changed even in that 18 months. On our trip, Elise was not strong enough to walk any kind of distance and spent most of her time in a wheelchair or a wagon. She frequently had cold temperatures and was getting sick a lot. She didn't have the strength to sit up on the carousel much and she didn't really want to sit in the wheelchair on the carousel either. When I look back at that experience I can see the progress that has been made. It has been slow in many areas, but it has been progress. I can say, after going on that trip we were motivated to carry on in our battle to improve Elise's quality of life. We will likely never be able to duplicate a trip like this for our family again. In the end, I don't know that we would want to. This was one of the most enjoyable experiences of our life and helped us to create a lifetime full of memories in just a few short days. If you are ever in the Orlando, FL area, you should stop by GKTW Village. They are always looking for more volunteers to fill their roughly 1,200 volunteer shifts per week! Last year they surpassed 2 million volunteer hours that have been served since they opened in 1989. Check out their website some time when you get the chance.